Abstract

From the 1930s, Leontief defended the validity of input-output analysis on the basis of a very specific epistemology: operationalism. Operationalism was not proper to Leontief but it was a common epistemological reference from the 1930s to the 1950s –especially about the status of scientific laws. The epistemological discussions around operationalism permits, in retrospect, to enlighten the debates about the theoretical foundations of the production function of Leontief.

Kohli Martin C. [2001], « Leontief and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1941-54: developing a framework for measurement », in Klein, J. and Morgan, M.S, (ed.), The Age of Economic Measurement, History of Political Economy, 61(3), p. 190-212.

Koopmans Tjalling Charles [1944], « Business cycles and fluctuations: a review, Economic Fluctuations in the United States, by Edwin Frickley », The American Economic Review, 34(2), p. 377-381.

Leontief Wassily [1955], « Input-output analysis and general equilibrium », in Barna [1956], The Structural Interdependence of the economy: proceedings of an international conference on input-output analysis, New York, Wiley, p. 41-49.

Leontief Wassily [1958a], « The State of Economic Science », The Review of Economics and Statistics, 40(2), p. 103-106.